Are red light cameras making South Florida roads safer?

As red-light cameras have sprouted throughout South Florida, two camps have taken hold: those who think the cameras are mainly a money grab by cash-starved cities, and those who think the cameras promote safety and better driving habits.

After looking at statistics from some of the longest-running cameras in the region, I think we've reached a happy medium.

The cameras seem to be doing their job, as violations and accidents have dropped — sometimes dramatically — at the oldest camera intersections, according to records from Pembroke Pines, West Palm Beach and Hallandale Beach. That suggests driver behavior is improving due to monitoring.

And the outrageous abuses of some early red-light cities — with fines up to $500 for petty rolling rights on red — have been curbed by a legislative tweak that took effect in July 2010.

The new law removed the worst Gotcha aspects, allowing for "careful and prudent" right turns. It also made all fines uniform — $158 ($260 if late), with a split between cities and the state. And it required the private vendors who run the cameras to be paid a flat fee, not a percentage of overall fines.

The system still isn't perfect, as evidenced by the recent violation that was mailed to Broward County Commissioner Ilene Lieberman's sister a few months after she died.

Beyond these hiccups, I think we now have a system that even a Big Brother cynic like me can live with.

Just look at the stats from the first red-light camera in Broward — at the intersection of Pines Boulevard and Southwest 129th Avenue in Pembroke Pines. In the two years before the camera was installed, the intersection had 25 accidents. In the last two years, there have been 13. That's nearly a 50 percent drop.

From July 2009 to June 2010, there were 4,017 straight-ahead violations at the intersection (335 a month). From July 2010 to June 2011, there were 2,280 (190 a month). That's a 43 percent drop.

"It's a safer intersection because of that camera. There's no question about it," said Pembroke Pines commissioner Angelo Castillo, a camera proponent.

In West Palm Beach, where cameras debuted in February 2010, accidents at the first three monitored intersections were down 32 percent in their first year compared to the previous year (38 to 26).

And the Gotcha game has improved since state law changed. Consider Hallandale Beach's dramatic dropoff in violations at its first camera, once Broward's biggest cash cow.

In its first six months, from January 2010 to June 2010, the camera at U.S. 1 and Hallandale Beach Boulevard generated $1.2 million in fines. Before the new law, the camera caught an average of 2,000 violations a month, an astounding 93 percent for right turns.

In the same six-month period this year, the camera generated only $47,000, averaging a mere 49 tickets a month. Hallandale police chief Dwayne Flournoy said accidents have dropped at the intersection, but he didn't have exact figures.

Because of lower-than-expected revenues and higher-than-expected costs from legal challenges, some cities have thought about ditching cameras that are unprofitable or break-even. Let this be a lesson: Sometimes easy money isn't so easy.